a movement made up of young and old and rich and poor and black and white, latino, asian, native american -- [ applause ] together we must lead america to a better place. we're one day away from a fresh start, one day away from a new beginning. my conviction is the better days are ahead. that's not based on promises and hollow rhetoric but on solid plans and proven results and an a unshakable belief in the greatness of the american spirit. you can hear it in their voices. it's here. election day 2012. after all the campaigning, all the debating, all the ads, all the tv yapping, it's time to o choose a president. good morning, i'm willie geist. this is a special election day edition of "way too early" live

from democracy plaza at rockefeller center here in new york city. mitt romney declared his candidacy for president on june 2, 2011. 201. today, 17 months later, voters will deliver a verdict in the presidential election. national polling in recent weeks has barely budged showing president obama and governor mitt romney deadlocked in a statistical tie with 2011 election in mind, both sides have assembled legal teams to handle voting irregularities or recounts. this contest will likely come down to a handful of swing states which have shown the president with a consistent by razor thin advantage among likely voters. virginia and new hampshire, opened their doors less than half an hour from now. as it tradition, two tiny new hampshire villages were first to cast their ballots in dixville notch. it was a split decision, five to five. five votes for each candidate.

in hart's location, 23 votes for president obama and nine for mitt romney. tonight polls begin closing about 6:00 eastern time in kentucky and indiana. our first big clue, though, about how the night will unfold will come after 7:00 when polls close in another half dozen states, including the battleground of virginia with 13 electoral votes up for grabs. the state president obama turned blue in 2008 by a seven-point margin. the latest nbc news wall street marist poll shows a statistical tie there. the next batch of closings, ohio and north carolina. as we've heard many times now, no republican has ever won the white house without taking the state of ohio. the president has maintained a small but steady lead there partly due to his support of the auto bailout. the unemployment rate lower than the national average and people feeling better about the direction of the economy than in many other parts of the country. still, though, a columbus

dispatch poll shows the state tied within the margin of error. with their voices strained from around the clock campaigning, both candidates spent the eve of the election offering closing arguments across a combined seven key states. governor romney focusing on three that could help him have the easiest path to 270 electoral votes. he ended in manchester, new hampshire, where his campaign launched nearly a year and a half ago. >> this is a special moment for ann and for me because this is where our campaign began. you got this campaign started a year and a half ago at the farm. your primary vote put me on the path to win the republican nomination and tomorrow your votes and your work right here

in new hampshire will help me become the next president of the united states. >> the president spent his final hours on the campaign trail in three midwestern states that could deliver him a second term. even without winning florida, virginia or north carolina, the final campaign of his political career, president obama returned to the city where it all began for him four years ago. des moines, iowa. before a crowd of 20,000 supporters, the president wiped away a tear while reflect on those who have helped this campaign and their accomplishments over the past four years. >> i've come back to iowa one more time to ask for your vote. i came back to ask you to help us finish what we've started. because this is where our movement for change began. thank you. right here. right behind these bleachers is the building that was home to our iowa headquarters of 2008.

in 2008 we were in the middle of two wars and the worst economic crisis since the great depression. today our businesses created 5.5 million new jobs. the auto industry is back, home values are on the rise. we're less dependent on foreign oil than any time in the last 20 years. we've dealt with the production of clean energy because of the service and sacrifice of our brave men and women in uniform, the war in iraq is over. the war in afghanistan has ended. al qaeda is on the run. osama bin laden is dead. >> president obama is now finished campaigning, he's already voted and will spend today at home in chicago where we're told he'll play some hoops with his friends. mr. romney plans to vote in massachusetts before he makes one final trip to ohio and to pennsylvania. some of the very last campaigning took place on monday night football last night as both candidates taped interviews with espn that aired at halftime. it has to do with not

getting distracted by your own hype or the critics. it's interesting. political reporters are a lot like sports reporters. you know, you lose a game and you're a bum. you win a game, you're a god. the truth is, just like in sports, in politics, we're all human, we make mistakes. sometimes we perform well, but the key is to just stay focused on what it is that you're doing. in sports, it's about winning championships. interesting, in politics, it's not winning elections. it's making sure that you're delivering for the folks who sent you. >> you have a favorite team? well, it is a new england patriots. i've lived in massachusetts now 40 years. i take personal full responsibility for their two super bowl wins as well as the red sox winning the world

series. hey, look as a governor you get blamed for everything that goes wrong, you might as well get the credit for what goes right. president obama says the bears are -- touting their defense as one of the best. senior political analyst, mark hall person, the co-author of game change and the former chairman of the republican michael committee, michael steele. >> happy election day. let's talk purple. >> first of all, it looks fantastic in front of democracy plaza. the other thing, we've seen incredible bitterness. the leaders of both parties saying we're not working with the other guy. one of the thing that's important is the country get ready for a new president, hopefully in the next 24 hours and that person is able to bring the country together. >> that's the point to the tie? >> i didn't mean that when i

asked. >> hall pern/steele 2016. >> i'm not putting too much money on that. people heading into the voting booths less than an hour from right now. what does this election boil down to? we've been at it for so long. it's good to take a step back. what's the fundamental choice? >> the difference between the two is their vision of how they see the country going forward. it's going to be one that, you know, uses the entrepreneurial prices out there, the spirit of the american people to go out and pull themselves up by their boot straps or one where government plays a significant role in determining outcomes and sometimes picking winners and losers. for a lot of people, they're going to step back, look at the underlying root of this thing, which is the economy. it boils down to how they feel about jobs, the progress that has been made in the last six months under this president's watch. do they factor that in as a positive, is it enough? or is it dispositive of some things about the future they

don't like. we don't really enjoy this idea of big health care programs and more government interference in markets like the auto industry, et cetera. so it really sounds like complicated, but for a lot of people it isn't. it boils down to their gut check, they look at the names. i did this myself. when filling out my ballot, look at the names and go, which direction do i want to take the country? that's what it boils down to. >> mark, take us behind the scenes, the making of game change 2 a little bit. if you can, pull out all the spin you've been hearing. you're talking to the principal players in these two campaigns. at 5:39 this morning, how are both campaigns feeling? >> they both feel like they're going to win. i watched both concluding rallies. my sense from knowing the two candidates a little bit is they both think they're going to win. if you look at most of our elections, usually one side has more doubt. at the candidate level, they both think they're going to win. there's no doubt that the obama

campaign has more confidence. they've expressed more confidence than any campaign i've covered with the exception of clinton campaign. on the romney side it's more mixed. but they believe they'll win. we could see a flow one way or the other. we could see one of the candidates tyke the preponderance of the battleground states. if they divide them, it's going to be a very close race. that's when the question of recounts and overtime and lawsuits could come into play. i think neither side is going to give this up lightly. it's not a case where we've seen in some elections where one side loses on election night and says you know what, for the good of the country, let's step aside. i don't think we'll see that if it's close. >> michael, if you're chairman of the rnc this morning, where are you looking for this election to be decided? is it as simple as ohio? >> i think it starts in new hampshire. i think in a lot of respect new hampshire is the linchpin which is why the governor is ending his campaign there. where he began it.

i think for him, he pivots out of new hampshire, it helps him set the sails for an ohio or wisconsin or some of the other states he may need. i think the whole outcome tonight starts in new hampshire. whoever wins there x you sort of watch the dominos fall in places like ohio or colorado. >> started in harts location, obama 23, romney 9. can mitt romney recover from that? that's the question everyone will be asking today. >> just like a good sporting event. early lead. >> had to start early with the punditry. we have six hours of morning joe head. get comfortable with your purple ties. still ahead, special edition of "way too early"ment more serious weather headed across the northeast to a region that can't afford any more of it. bill karins has details and your election day forecast next. also, senator scott brown looking to fend off a challenge from elizabeth warren in the state of massachusetts.

just one of the many close races playing out for control of the u.s. senate. "way too early" coming back to democracy plaza on msnbc. >> i was in the lincoln room a moment ago and saw a full sculpture of abraham lincoln and i get a catch in my throat as i see him. >> what lincoln said was that through our government, we should do together what we cannot do as well for ourselves.

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welcome back to a special edition of "way too early." it's 5:45 in the morning. rockefeller center lit up in red, white and blue. democracy plaza, our home all night, what could be a long night. let's get a check of the forecast with bill karins. he's rink side downstairs. >> great seat down here. it's a cold seat. tell you what, this is the coldest morning in areas affected by sandy. you really hope no one is still in their homes without power trying to wait this out. hopefully they're in a shelter or somewhere warm. it is frigid. as far as the forecast today, what we'll be dealing with, is the southeast, the rainstorm. the potential this will be the nor'easter eventually that will sweep up the coast. it will be a little wet early from savannah to tallahassee, jackson, daytona beach.

the i-4 corridor could have issues. but that should sweep out by the afternoon and this evening. the other tricky spot for travel in the northern plains, heading from wisconsin to minnesota, you may have a little bit of light wintry precip. that's about it. not too many issues. maybe showers around chicago later today. the forecast for your election day, once again, just the southeast, that's the storm. now let's track it, that will become the nor'easter. good news. further off the coast. very important, that means the winds will be lighter for the coastal areas especially of new jersey. the waves smaller. the storm surge will be a little less. because of the colder air in place, we'll see a better chance of snow right along the jersey shore and inland new jersey. maybe even new york city, too. willie, doesn't look like a crippling storm or enough heavy snow for a lot of power outages. we're talking about a wednesday inconvenience type afternoon and evening. >> let's hope so. bill karins, your forecast looks all the better on a yum bow trotro --

jumbotron. the threat of a storm on the east coast raising big concerns with thousands of people still struggling in the aftermath of sandy. nearly $200 million has been provided so far by fema. most of new york city's public schools finally back open. but as many as 40,000 people in need of emergency shelter. nbc's katie tur visited one of the hardest hit areas along the jersey shore. >> a week after the storm, the first real look at sea bright, new jersey and how destructive sandy's storm surge was to this town. >> you see this splash and get a sense of how high the water was. >> look at the sand. >> residents like bob and aim amy kelly were allowed back with empty suitcases and garbage bags to recover what they could as another big storm is coming. >> we don't know when we'll get back in. >> inside a rush of emotion as they survey the damage to their three-generation home that is

now ininhabitable. >> this is danny. he's ten. he's safe. that's all that matters. >> just south in a devastated mantoloking, before and after pictures reveal how powerful sandy was. where the iconic bridge once stood, a dam built to keep ocean water out of the bay. >> it seems like it's not real. >> no, it's not. >> a familiar place is pointed out along a littered landscape of a changed coastline. in atlantic city, all casinos reopened. though crowds were small. monday morning meant back to business for much of the garden state. but not without delays. hundreds waited in lines for trains and buses and the lines grew at gas stations across the state even as a gas rationing rule went into effect. more than 800,000 customers are still without power, including hundreds of schools. back in sea bright, mayor long promises a comeback. >> we rebuild it in a smart sustainable way for the future.

>> governor christie spoke to the children of new jersey. >> keeping you safe, getting you back to school, making sure you feel like you're taken care of. >> for bob and amy kelly, rescuing pictures a priority. memories nearly lost in sandy's flood. they won't risk it again in what could be round two later this week. nbc's katie tur reporting for us this morning. the long lines at gas stations in new jersey have slowed a bit. 55% of the gas stations open for business. at the top of the hour on, "morning joe" live from democracy plaza. president obama brought to tears in the final moments of the final campaign of his political career. a morning joe day of a thousand stars with special extended coverage on this election day. it's the only place you need to be today. plus, as goes missouri, so goes the senate. we'll break down the race between senator claire mccaskill and congressman todd akin as we

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welcome back to "way too early." we're live at 5:53 in the morning at democracy plaza outside 30 rockefeller center. polls have already opened in the two small new hampshire locations in dixville notch. we're less than ten minutes a a from polls opening in virginia, indiana and new york. both campaigns, of course, will be looking today at turnout. if you want to sound smart today bs tell your friends the state of minnesota has had the highest voter your honorout in the last three presidential elections. the state has gone democrat in all three. in 2008, minnesota had a turnout of 77.8%. that's more than 16 points higher than the national average was that year. of the ten states with the highest voter turnout in 2008, all but two went for obama. the exceptions, alaska and missouri. republicans hoping to pick up several senate seats tonight and keep control of the house.

democrats and independents who caucus with them currently hold a 53-47 seat majority. perhaps the best chance for a republican gain in nebraska, bob kerry who served as governor and senator in the past looks to defend the seat held by ben nelson. if kerrey loses, they're expected to control every congressional and statewide office in nebraska. republicans likely to lose a seat in maine ar king considered the favorite to replace olympia snow. in connecticut, former wrestling executive, linda mcmahon pursuing a seat for the second election cycle. reports show that mcmahan spent over $42 million of her own money on this race. a quinnipiac poll shows her trailing murphy. in the state of virginia, former democratic governor tim

kaine, former senator allen. >> wall street journal marist poll has kaine holding a three-point lead over allen 49-46. that well within the margin of error. they are tied statistically. elizabeth warren closed the gap on scott brown. the latest u-mass poll finds the race neck and neck. they're at a statistical tie. two other closely watched races pushes women's issues to the front. senator claire mccaskill is trying to defend her seat against todd akin whose memorable legitimate rape comment. mccaskill with a slight edge over akin within the margin of error. in indiana, treasure, richard mourdock defeated -- but he stump nld in the general election race against joe donlly when he said rape was something

god intended to happen. bill nelson holding a slight lead over republican congressman connie mack. a recent miami herald tampa times poll shows nelson with an edge there. lot more to talk about in those races and the presidential election. voters going to the polls in three minutes. we'll be talking about that on "morning joe" in a moment. still ahead, what are you doing up? i know why you're up. it's election day. your tweets, texts and e-mails next in morning joe live from democracy plaza moments away.

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